Rohingya refugee boat restocks after storm in southern Thailand

webfact · April 1, 2018

Rohingya refugee boat restocks after storm in southern Thailand

Photo from: White news's Facebook fanpage

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A boat with Rohingya refugees restocked with essential supplies at an island in southernThailand on Sunday, authorities said, amid signs that overcrowding in Bangladeshi camps could prompt many others to make similarly perilous sea crossings.

Some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims crossed the border from Myanmar's Rakhine State into Bangladesh after militant attacks in August sparked a military crackdown that United Nations and Western countries have said constitutes ethnic cleansing.

The boat, carrying 56 refugees, stopped on Lanta island in southern Krabi province after a heavy storm on Saturday evening. It was the first Rohingya vessel spotted off Thailand in more than a year, local police said.

"We treated them with humanitarian consideration and allowed them to return to sea because they told us they were heading to Malaysia," Lanta police chief, Police Colonel M.L. Pattanajak Chakrabandhu told Reuters. Locals gave the refugees food and water, he said.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya fled by sea following an outbreak of sectarian violence in Rakhine State in 2012, some falling prey to human traffickers.

That exodus peaked in 2015, when an estimated 25,000 people fled across the Andaman Sea for Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Rights groups expect another surge in Rohingya boats reaching Southeast Asia, even if not at the levels of the past.

"We have received credible information about boats full of Rohingya refugees making their way to Malaysia over the last few months," Matthew Smith co-founder of advocacy group Fortify Rights told Reuters. "The humanitarian situation in Bangladesh for the refugees is very difficult."

Malaysian coast guard chief Zulkifili Abu Bakar said the service had yet to receive any information on possible arrivals. He added standard policy was to turn away refugee boats attempting to make landfall, unless weather conditions are bad.

"We may allow them to come in and feed them ... our concern is that if we allow one boat in, we have to allow other boats in after that," Zulkifili told Reuters.

"It all depends, so far we're just keeping a lookout," he said.

(Reporting by Aukkarapon Niyomyat and Panu Wongcha-um in BANGKOK, Rozanna Latiff in KUALA LUMPUR; Editing by John Stonestreet and Mark Potter)

webfact · April 1, 2018

Rohingya boat marks new exodus

By SUPALAK GANJANAKHUNDEE
THE NATION

56 refugees land in Thailand as crisis and crowded camps prompt risky journeys.

A BOAT carrying 56 Rohingya that landed in Thailand yesterday was the first batch of hundreds fleeing across Southeast Asia from conflicts in Myanmar’s Rakhine state as well difficulties now plaguing refugee camps in Bangladesh, sources said.

The group of boat people was found before dawn in an area between Koh Ha and Koh Lanta in Krabi province, local officials said, adding that 19 children were onboard. The group was then held in Lanta district yesterday.

Krabi Governor Kitibodee Pravitra confirmed that people travelling on the boat were Rohingya, but said he did not know where they had come from.

“The initial report said they were docking near Koh Lanta this morning to avoid the storm,” he was quoted as saying by AFP, referring to the Thai island popular with tourists. “They want to go to Malaysia.”

The people on board would continue on their destination, he added.

About 700,000 people have fled from Rakhine state to Bangladesh since August last year, when a militant group attacked Myanmar security outposts, prompting a harsh crackdown under a “clearance operation” by authorities that killed thousands of people.

Atrocities including arson, torture, gang rape, murder and massacres have been reported by international organisations and the media, as most of Rakhine’s Rohingya population was forced from the state. The United Nations human rights body has said there have been “elements of ethnic cleansing” in some areas and “genocide” may have been perpetrated.

Myanmar authorities refuse to recognise Rohingya as national citizens, calling them “Bengali” to suggest their origination outside of the country. The country’s de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has allegedly been complicit in the violence in the state.

It remained unclear yesterday where the Rohingya discovered near Koh Lanta had come from, with it being possible that they had left directly from their homes in Rakhine or had escaped from the crowded refugee camps in Bangladesh, a Rohingya man in Thailand told The Nation on condition of anonymity.

While the camps in Bangladesh are tightly controlled by security forces, trafficking syndicates have resumed operating given the high demand for people seeking refuge farther abroad, he said.

“As far as I know, some 400 people have paid for the boat trip across the Indian Ocean to Southeast Asia countries Thailand or Malaysia,” he added.

Siyeed Alam, chairman of Rohingya Association in Thailand, said his association was seeking ways to reach the group, but Thai authorities had not allowed them to be contacted as of yesterday.

Thailand and Asean have heard frequent warnings that the Rohingya crisis could become a regional issue as members of the ethnic minority will continue to disperse across the region, including with the involvement of abusive human-trafficking rings, as were exposed in 2015.

Violence in Rakhine continues and life in the refugee camps is difficult as Bangladeshi authorities and aid agencies struggle to take care of the displaced population.

Bangladesh and Myanmar recently reached a deal to repatriate thousands of Rohingya to Rakhine, but the plan has been delayed due to a lack of readiness on the Myanmar side to receive them.

Rohingya in the refugee camps and the international community have called for guarantees of a safe return and establishment of protected areas in Rakhine before repatriation begins.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30342228